2015 Marine Corps Marathon – Race Recap Part I

There’s always so much to tell about marathon weekend. I’m going to split it into two parts like I did last year – with one Runner’s World Challenge part as well.

I ended up visiting friends on Friday so I didn’t get to the marathon expo til Saturday. I wanted to get there first thing in the morning to avoid too may crowds. As it was, even getting there right after it opened it was really busy! However, unlike last year, it was smooth sailing with no lines to get into the place. It was also really convenient to get there via metro this time instead of always going to the DC Armory.

DC Convention Center

The Runner’s World Challenge booth was one of the first things I saw. There were three people at the booth and, while I didn’t catch their names at the time, they were really nice and helpful.

Marine Corps Marathon Runner’s World Challenge Booth

The rest of the expo was nice. The Dunkin Donut booth especially had nice swag but I didn’t want to wait in line to spin the wheel. This is because I had just come out of the super long line at the Brooks apparel station. I guess it was that long last year too. I wasn’t going to get anything this year though; a combination of worrying that I’d even finish and the fact that I’m still in grad school and pretty much all my money goes to that and my kids. But my dad came with me and his combination of being a marine and loving his kid ended up with him buying me this great 2015 MCM windbreaker/run jacket. It was so nice of him! When we finally got through the line to pay, the guy says “Ok, that’ll be $95 please.” I was like, WHAT THE HELL!?! $95 DOLLARS?!! Yeah… I was shocked. My dad didn’t mind but I was freaking.

MCM jacket & patch

After that we ended up walking around a bit near Chinatown. I wish I could have walked around the city more this past weekend but, here’s the other thing… I had a huge project due for school that I wasn’t able to do before I left. I had to get back and get working on it. Plus my foot was feeling funny and I wanted to rest it up.

DC Chinatown

I didn’t go to the strategy session later on that day because it took so much time and so much walking to get to the expo in the first place. I suppose I could have timed my expo excursion for when the seminar was taking place but I was only thinking about getting back early to work on my paper. I spent the rest of the night trying to get it done (unsuccessfully) and then made myself get to sleep by 10pm. This was the first time I was able to sleep well before a race in my whole life! Maybe it was because I was too busy thinking about having to finish the paper after the race or because I knew the race wouldn’t be my best so I wasn’t worried about it as much?

I woke up at 430 and threw on my stuff, my Aero Capris pocket stuffed to the max! You can carry so much in that pocket! iPhone, 3 GU packets, money & metro card, all comfortably in there. Those pants ended up being so great for the race and I hadn’t even worn them for longer than a 2 mile run! Yay! There’s one good surprise for the day! Seriously they were the best capris I’ve ever worn for a race. I used to wear Under Armor and would always end up pulling on them or adjusting them throughout, no matter what size or type I got. These Aero’s were perfect and never budged. They also have a draw string which I didn’t get at first but then when I stuffed that pocket full I was like, whoa, I need to make sure these stay up.

Marine Corps Marathon Expo

Other than that, I did wear my RWB shirt. Never wore it for a race before. I get kind of weird about wearing my old military stuff or anything that announces it. More on Team RWB later…

My dad was reading the race details and saw that there was a bus on, what was it, 23rd and Crystal Drive (?) that took runners right up to the race tents at the start so you could skip the metro. Last time, since I’m really close to there, I just walked it in. And it took a while to get there. This time I decided, even though it was backtracking direction for me, I’d try those buses. They were great! I recommend grabbing them and even staying at the Crystal City hotels if you ever come to DC to do the race. Sure, it’s not the city proper (my friends call it “city light”) and you’d have to take the metro into the city to sight see. But to me that’s better than having to travel to the start line. That’s when I want things to be easy. And these buses were as easy as you can get. And those Crystal City hotels are the cheapest hotels to priceline, as opposed to staying in Penn Quarter, which would be my next choice. It all depends on your preference on race weekend. But I highly recommend the Crystal City hotel + shuttle option.

We got dropped off near the security lines and it was a quick walk to the tents. The Runner’s World Challenge tent was what I expected it to be – warm, dry and comfortable!! Last year was freezing sitting on the concrete in an open sided tent. And this year it rained. It was kind of a mist-sprinkle type thing initially but then it picked up for the start. And that’s basically where my not-so-super-fun-adventure started.

But in between the before-start and after-start there was the Runner’s World Challenge experience! Read about it here!

My foot feels fine! Isn’t that crazy? No pain whatsoever. I guess going back to my old shoes and running slow worked! Hurt during the race but not after. I’m ok with that. And yes, got my paper done, but most likely the worst grade of my semester though.